The one thing I like on blue archive is that the characters aren't "ignored" unlike games like azur lane when they make another character that character will be forgotten and won't be used ever again, But in Blue archive is different, they make students with different personalities, stories, and it doesn't feel like their just a soulless png, You get to smile with them, Cry with them, spend time with them, and most importantly guide them to their ending and giving them infinite chances!
Yes, that’s the thing that bothers me about Azur Lane, as well. Manjuu goes out of its way to give all its characters various personalities, but most of them are just one and done. There should have been a lot more shorter character-driven events every few weeks, then release larger, well-written ones once every two or so months.
The Blue Archive community is honestly one of the best game communities I've interacted with. The self-gatekeeping nature of the game's content really does it a favor
@@randomSaltyUser lmao real. Even though personally I hate any bits of NTR elements exist, for some reason the "NTR" and "Gomen" moments here are so funny that I can't stop laughing every time I read. seriously am I going to be comfortable with those? Because if I do I would have to stop reading any BA fan short stories.
I only really picked this game up because I thought the girls and visuals were adorable. Then, I did the story and now Aris is my unofficial daughter and will protect her with my entire being. Raid bosses are cool too, I'm just terrible at them.
I still find it funny that a club named After-School Sweets Club probably has enough power to cause trouble to some of the more notorious groups in the game.
The story is endearing and fun and hints at a hidden depth but isn't, like, outstanding or anything... and then Volume Final comes out and you understand that it isn't not outstanding. It's fucking insane. All this hidden depth hinted at? It's actually there.
And if you still feel bad about the gameplay, just thought of it as "dynamic turn-based game" since the skill takes turn, and no fixed turn between you and the enemy on top of auto normal attacks. What spices them up are the scenario (or story) and the gimmick setup
BA is pretty good to f2p though! i have all of them while also being f2p. The amount pyrox they give is super generous imo and even relationship story pyrox accumulates.
@@vulpestellarpretry good.... Go compare to GFL or PNC from MICA team, THOSE TWO are the TOP IN F2P quality, so much so it's impossible to get used to FGO BS and the average F2P like Gachas do in general. All while having a Story worth at least one read, a (Tbh to an excessive degree) well developed world for the Story that sells the whole thing.... All while keeping quite a fair amount of SoL comedy. Both Gachas also have a fair degree of ways you as the Player can easily make a difference in the fights, GFL has unit Position change in combat (Useful for manipulating enemy Targeting logic or stall them to let your side have the better Initiative), PNC you can use the units super skills as well as "Command" skills to nudge the fight that bit in one's favour (Fill a unit's auto skill bar, teleport them or temporarily keep them out of danger, to pure offensive support)
My dumbass literally cannot try and save pyroxene and everytime it goes 1,200k I'll just gamble it instead of waiting the character I want to show up in a banner
my man sensei doing everything in his power to not let the story turn into a bittersweet dystopia. its my favorite part about the game. often gachas are either all around happy-go-lucky or full on mental trauma. but blue archive is kind of a mix of the two. juuuust when the story is about to turn dark we pull out the "relic" and shape it into a happy ending, including the most cheesy lines ever witnessed by man. and i wouldnt have it any other way
I can understand people's criticism about Sensei being way too OP but I honestly couldn't care less. Bro is putting in work to make sure his students live a happy life despite the craziness of the city he lives in. We have spent too much time with these kids to watch them cry so it's only right that we save them as soon as possible
@@kaz7690 Who says Sensei is OP? Man literally got shot once and proceed to almost die. Meanwhile, students are constantly eating bullets and explosives as if its part of their natural diet. Few them can even literally walk through walls unscathed.
@@splitcryptic Yeah OP means that the character is so invulnerable and all powerful that it basically removes all tension from the story. There are multiple occasions in the story where Sensei is shown to be vulnerable and having the odds stacked against him. Literally all of the volumes have the odds stacked against the main characters.
this was the brainchild of a 3 page google doc and 3 days, can't lie it was hell but i enjoyed it so damn much, thanks for watching! edit: my favourite ba character is wakamo
1:34 worth mentioning that you can't really do shootouts between player-controlled students. The "PvP" is just sending your students in against other people's setups and hoping the AI uses skills in your favor. Since you have zero input on the fight, everyone just skips the combat to get to the result.
I play this with my wife and we both LOVE this game, from a story/lore stand point is amazing because the local power houses are pretty realistic with club incharge of controlling those in charge, also, at some point the cliche and elements they are embraced and later, turn into their own meta comentary, later when Giolconde starts talking about everything as a story you start wondering what is everything yet.... the game doesnt tell you too much so the amount of theory crafting is amazing
Blue archive story is hinged on you cared about the students that you cared for. That slow slice of life part is the thing that made you cared for them so when plot happens you genuinely wanna to know more. Case in point volume f
Or Eden Treaty, you spend a lot with the M.U.W. club during chapters 1-2 that when shit goes down in ch3 it makes Azusa struggle and Hifumi speech all the more stronger and then the cinch on ch4 where you do stick to your guns, every girl in each school is your student, even if they tried to kill you or even shoot you like the Arius squad or Mika
@@HaxeRain This is why filler is good when done right. I don't like filler that goes on and on, but games like Blue Archive and the Kiseki series have just enough of it to develop the characters and get the player invested WITHOUT wasting their time. So that when shit goes down, you care.
downloaded BA expecting to delete it in a week. It's been on my phone for (almost?) 2 years. Its story is so genuinely engaging. i won't pretend like i don't cry at the most emotion-pandering cliche story but like... hifumi's speech in eden treaty? god, i was bawling my eyes out. I already knew it was in there but the effect still hit me full force. most of the stories in genshin don't get reactions like that from me. (it's probably not all that important to mention, but as a girl i also exist and also play this game. hello. I feel like it's geared more towards.... aha,,, a male audience but well that's never stopped me. I'm pretty sure sensei is implied to be male but a girl can be delusional, okay? not to say i'm not also a lil bit of a degenerate) also I don't ever see all that much love for Serina. maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places... she's my best girl (she's SO cute I have her christmas memorial lobby as my first page on login and i always make sure to headpat her) tl;dr: BA's story and characters are amazingly worth it
I LOVE Christmas Serina... I didn't really think much about her until I played some of her Christmas bond story. Then I saw how she's such a sweet character. I hope she'll get a figure in the future, but yeah, I don't think she's very popular.
A woman with good taste, you're a rarity within this community but is very much welcome nonetheless. Btw there is no official statement that sensei is a male or female, sensei is us. A self-insert character that we can relate with so that we can imagine our students bonding with us easier, there's even fan content portraying sensei as a female so please don't feel left out! As long as you share the community's feeling of love towards the game and the students, you will always belong.
Ayo wtf the quality of this video is so so unexpectingly high. One of (if not) the best BA review I've ever seen actually, this deserves atleast 500k views
The part about cliches and tropes is what people dont talk about enough. The game uses cliches and tropes not as a support to hold the story up. But they take them and USE them max force. They use character tropes and then what is often a rarer thing in anime like stories they add legit depth to characters. Its why i can remember so many characters in the game. I know them through how they act and the initial trope they embody and then their amazing personality. If you can analyze their personality that means theres depth and that is something blue archive manages to largely have. And definitely the stories is the highlight the cliches/tropes instead of making you go well that was ok. They manage to take it and leave a impression. You know we will get through it but the journey and experiences are worth every trope and cliche they run
This, most notable example for me would be Hanako, who starts as the typical horny anime girl trope, but then they actually develop her character and give her some depth, make her her own person. The writers are just amazing.
You know you have good character design when everytime you release the new variant it will trending and generating countless fanart. And blue archive have the easiest story to digest compared to other gacha like example from my personal opinion Arknight story, i can't stomach Arknight story whitout getting boring every damn minutus because how they write the dialogue especially kalsit smh, this is why can't never get pass Arknight story even tho i want to
It's easy to digest, but that also means they aren't going to make any relevant lore heavy story shit anymore considering the latest updates. It's one of those games where the story is just....casual. After all of the "intense" final episode story it's just done. Everything after that and all the stories after that are just casual and non-heavy breathing lore. Which suffice to say Blue Archive out of all the gacha games would be the most *calm* stories out there compared to the others that are constant pain and suffering. BA's story ends up being calm and joyful in the end.
The difference is that those 2* can be raised to 5* just like the 3* units, and here's the good part. Those 2* and 1* are *Usable* unlike lower rarities from other games. With very few being outright better than 3* (Tsubaki, arguably the best tank in the Game being a 2*). Some lower rarity are even the CORE of certain raids like Shizuko. 2* Unlike other games also doesn't suffer in their quality department in terms of Art style, story, dialogues, etc. They don't receive downgrades.
Great video ! I am a day 1 global player. But used to play this game on and off. Had zero care for the characters and skipping their story., so I just judge most of them based on appearance Missed a lot of units that I want,...regrets, and rage quitting for salty gacha experience lol I am 3 months straight actively playing again with some friends Finally have a patience to stop my gacha impulse, which enables me to save for 600 pulls! Now, I have some of the units I wanted during because of fes banner Also, after catching up with the story, it really made me care more on every students in kivotos
Same. Ive known about blue archive for over a year even before its release in jp. It was initially the music that drew me in. But after i played it it kinda became boring becaus ei had other things to do. Yes the story was amazing but i eventually quit for over a year. I do regret quitting because i missed a huge amount of things and now my account is way underleveled. And just like you i actually came back a couple months ago. And then i got destroyed by the fest banner. Literally almost none of the units i wanted even after 400 pulls. 😭😭😭
Nah, the rates is arguably one of the worst, it's pretty dogshit. BUT, it makes up for it by having one of the more generous Gacha Currency Income Rate. You get like 150 pulls on average per month. And the Spark system doesn't have 50/50 so it's a guaranteed.
Sensei is the chaddest gacha MC ever 1. Sensei doesn't have assistant follower (like Mash/Paimon). Well it's Arona but she rarely comes up and most of decisions and talking is from sensei themself 2. The most shonen protag ever (keep power through any problem) but somehow doesn't feel like one 3. and lastly -having a great fetish- And the fact that 4th wall break plays an important point in the main story, the writer really has the biggest balls to do that
I completely agree with how good the story and music of this game is. I've invested more effort and money into other gacha games but BA is the only game where I actually give a shit about the characters and story. It's goofy at times but it can also make me cry. It makes me feel like I'm actually there with the students. Also the music *chef's kiss
Every time that we get reinforcements on the story mode battles I get just so hyped and excited, starting the battle with your little group of six (or many times even less) while you get a ton of enemies to then watch these students from other academies join gets me so hyped, these are the moments I can't stop thinking how much I love not only this game, but how this game has made me love EVERY STUDENT, it's amazing.
The BA community is probably the best gaming community out there, especially among gachas. I've never felt compelled to really be a part of any gaming community. But the BA community? Yea. The gatekeeping is imperative, and as long as it's kept up, the game will flourish in global. I wouldn't have this game or community any other way. The art. The attention to detail. The beauty. The depth. The fan service. The characters are people. The music is fire. The feels hit hard. And all of it is incredible. There's no filthy political bs. The whole game screams passion and soul. Vol 1 is cliche, but good. Vol 2 teases you with unanswered questions. Vol 3 gives you a beautiful drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Vol 4 pulls back and winds up the punch that vol f is going to deliver. And all the while it's peppered with side events and background stories. This is what a game is.
ikr! only gacha's I play now are Blue Archive and Fate/Go and I will say Blue Archive is way more generous then fate/go because of the "Recruit Points and Spark System" like when I do save up I know I am always going to get the student I want no matter what like recently pulled Toki but then had enough recruit points to grab Nagisa ^-^
Literally the only game that nexon published that wasn't ruined due to pay2win or straight up terminated after a year or so lmao. Still can't belive that i will each a time when nexon will publish a good game. I vivdly remeber the freakout when it was announced that nexon will be publishing it and oh boy im glad that i and thousands of other were wrong
As someone who was considering playing Blue Archive, you're video has helped me to realise that it is the most game of all time. Thank you. Jokes aside great video, entertaining and very informative
Recently a friend asked why i play blue archive over genshin. And this video sums it up, a cliche ceases to be cliche once it has competent writing behind it. And blue archives writers make real people, not characters, not 1 note cliches, theyre people and i love them like they where my own daughters and i never felt so strongly for characters like this before. Even though im a long time fate fan, a long time steven king fan, a long time bleach fan, some of the greatest shows and movies dont even come close to the shakespearian writing that is blue archive.
This was an awesome video man! Preach! This is one of the best BA video rant that I have watched its really good and to the points! I've played many gacha games in my life and still playing 5 of them and I for one gonna say that BA is one of my favorites.
I really like how Blue Archive uses the static images. Despite limited movement, there's so much character to them. The little dip they do like they're bowing, Izuna bouncing back and forth across the screen like an exciteable puppy during the Cherry Blossom Festival event. They may be static pictures, but somehow they feel full of life.
I clicked this thinking it would just be another shitty takes instead what I got is a really good presentation that sells the game, now excuse me dust got into my eyes when you switch to narrating the story I'm def not crying 'kay And let's not forget to give massive props to the whole dev team for making this game possible, special shout outs to our trio composers Mitsukiyo, Nor and Karut for creating such an iconic melodies and also isakusan the godly writer that brought us emotional rollercoaster
I remember playing this game back in 2022 and i gotta say it's one of my favorite small gacha games, the story was amazing and the characters were great, sensei taking care and spends time with his students were some of the best parts of the game, the gacha system was very forgiving unlike genshin where 100 or 90 pulls would pity you and give you something random, although i still think that gacha overall is dangerous, i don't think i ever got into a state where i spent money to get a specific character with high stats, aside from the rare ones, i agree with you on the community its fascinating to see people still making fan stories about sensei and his students
YES THANK YOU FOR THIS. No matter how many jokes they put in it never felt forced or too much and the way they incorporate "cliches" into the story felt very different and would not feel cliche at all, I mean there are even moments where they lowkey break the 4th wall and made it somewhat part of the world
blue archive is one of those games that i wouldn't have gotten into if it wasn't for the fantastic ost, i don't play gacha games like at all because it isn't really my kind of thing but i decided to take the plunge one day expecting it to be like any other gacha but as soon as the title screen bgm came on i was hooked this game is fuckin godlike
What a great video, sums up how I feel about the game myself. Tried it after seeing Fan Art of Mari. I actually liked it so much, I started a JP Account two weeks after my Global one. Started playing for the Cute. Stayed for the Story, Characters, Raids, the amazing OST and the Cute.
10:13 might want to add that the anthropomorphic animals (shiba ramen shop owner, pug office worker, even a polar bear youtuber) could be representations of people that are not students (probably adults) as shown in 3rd PV with crowds of people that has halos floating above their heads but didn't wear a uniform. That would also be supported by the fact that sensei is unique in kivotos because they don't have a halo and would die with a single shot to the head. But then again, there's not really an official explanation if they're actually anthropomorphic animals or otherwise.
Im also glad that this community isnt toxic but i only noticed that BA players cant stop flexing man like stfu 😂 Btw this is such a great video man u deserve much more subs and likes
Flex culture is toxic. Flaunting how 'good' your community via memes is how I got turned off Honkai and Arknights, the biggest elitists of the gacha sphere. Limbus and Path to Nowhere aren't too far behind.
@@themarky2714 flexes in BA doesn't seem so toxic. For example, "Mika banner is here I'm ready with my 50k pyroxenes!" so they are basically flexing in a non-toxic way I guess
I'm ok with everything in this game. But what I don't like about this game is their constant student specific locked stages (stages in which specific students are hard required to beat without issues like Decagrammaton event which hard requires Cherino. And yes I still don't have her 😭)
Tbf Vol F ch 2 is only slow because of Nsir's Summit. BA story moves fast in general. I can clear out a whole chapter in a day if I can spare the time and have cleared out the missions beforehand. But Nsir's Summit kinda makes you go through a whole week just to get to Ep 21.
@@McCaroni_Sup nsir' summit does cause it to feel slower, but not as much as the filler defend academies eps. I get that they try to make the scale of the story as big as possible, but each academy having its own episode about defending itself is just a bit too much. Well atleast a good thing about having more episodes is more pyroxenes i guess
@@McCaroni_Sup and ep 21 is redundant as hell lmao. Only things it has to offer is jpegs of the sky turning back to blue and the appearance of shiroko terror. I'm sure they could've fit those elsewhere, or make the episode a bit longer
I like blue archive but hate raids. It's just glorified time attack and restarting for crits. I am more into pvp due to meta countering and account personality coming into play. Higher raid rank doesnt even give you anything. It's insane
It's even fine to not get platinum in Raids. Getting Gold is enough as it gives you 1000x pyroxenes, doing enough of those raids can get you enough for multiple pulls.
It shows your account progression tho and gives you a reason to upgrade your students, try new difficulty and reach higher and higher rank. Ofc Insane difficulty is quite hard if you either don't have core units or your team is bad invested (not maxed gear). My first raid was Perorodzilla carried by borrowed student on, I think, hardcore difficulty, but then by the time of this comment I was finally able to clear my first Insane raid (it was Shiro Kuro). My goal now is to be able to clear every raid on Insane and never touch Torment 💀 In PVP tho, consistently comfy staying in top 500 is enough imo. All you need is Shun, Yuuka with bond gear and Iroha. At least in PVE you only mald cause of crits, but in PVP you mald about everything cause it is out of your control.
I like the character designs... (Kayoko best girl and one of the only characters that is 18) But gameplay wise... I'm not really a fan of. It's kinda just... "click the button when needed." I would like it more if it was a bit more interactive. I think that's why I dropped the game.
I mean it's understandable that people like you enjoy games that has more strategic or action to it like FPS games. Though let's be real, that's not a thing that exists in gacha games. At most, all of them are point-and-click adventure.
@@sirbachelorboredmen1314 I am an Arknights simp. I play it everyday and it's my favorite game personally. Then probably Honkai Impact 3rd and maybe Star Rail.
yeah its really rough to run and it crashes pretty often in comparison to other games i play also i still remember when loading times were actual garbage and i spent half of my playtime on loading screens
Blue Archive's story, music, and characters are the three things that made me love the game. I tried a lot of gacha games, but it made me lose interest for a few days and maybe for a few hours. The only gacha ones I've played that made me played more than weeks was this game and Genshin Impact. Also Blue Archive is easy to get into, and just a liiitle bit overwhelming at the start (like any gacha game), but it enhances with the gameplay that's easy to get into, a gacha system that is fairly generous, and you have an excellent game!
Honestly the community is actually great. The fact that it's all or nothing with the cunny stuff is a natural gatekeeper. It keeps normies away from the weeb retreat, and thus prevents them from ruining the game. It's kind of like how Japan is ethnically homogenous and has very low violent crime rates - while the moment countries in Europe introduced unchecked mass migration they suddenly became way more dangerous to live in. We don't need normie immigrants. The BA community is very peaceful and is mostly concerned with talking about the game and loving the game. Look at games which have a lot of normie immigration in them, like Genshin. Their fandom is absolute garbage and they get into pointless toxic spats all the time. You will almost NEVER see anyone in this community get toxic about anything, let alone trivial things like the Genshin community does. Also mainstream animes/mangas almost always tend to have the worst fandoms, like MHA and Naruto. If you don't like the way we roll, then the exit is right there. Pretty simple. I can understand it making you feel uncomfortable because at the end of the day you can't control how you feel. But please please PLEASE don't let your personal feelings take precedence over ours. Go find a community that does make you feel comfortable, because this one ain't it chief.
@@McCaroni_SupSensei... this is the first time I'm crying after reading a comment on RU-vid. It brings me so much memory about my previous Community Honkai Impact, it was a really peaceful community before... but now it's just a contaminated community.
@@McCaroni_Suphow do you call poeple that are against pedophilia normies in a degrading manner? Thats just what the fuk? And i always see people like you bring up japan in this scenario LMFAO. You need to lay off the little kid corn
As a person that have dropped this game couple weeks ago I 100% agree with what you say. Even though I didn't play this game anymore I'm still interested with the over all story. And the music , even though techno style music is not really my thing, i love this game ost .The reason I've dropped it is that I've already feel in love with princess connect re:dive.
I remember picking up Blue Archive just for a side gacha, but now it is my main gacha game and i play it daily nonstop. The story is probably one of the best i ever read in gacha games and the music is so addictive i really love this game 😭
I just started the game a week ago and i really love it! Aru is basically the reason i started the game If i had to complain about my experience with ba, would be the community and the whole.. cunny thing
My rant about BA is, I'm tired levelling up my characters. There's no end of this. Each char need a tremendous amount of investment, and the exp 'card' is just absurd to farm. Not to mention getting dupe is absolutely necessary, the weapon also need food. The skill need a lot. Then, 20 affection is just asking the moon.
I recently started playing BA in JP server. The reason why i started playing this game in JP server instead of global, is so that i can avoid the repeated cunny jokes and stale emoticons that the global community uses. I’m positive that a lot of people just get creeped out by BA fans just because this is the general image of the people that plays the game lol. On the side note, this game has the most enjoyable story out of all gacha games i’ve played. Other gacha games have more interesting lore and worlds, like Arknights and hoyo games, but them being Chinese games they are bound to weird and bloated long ass paragraphs style of writing, it does ruins the pace.
i dont call myself a man of moral, but those cunny jokes arent really that funny in the first place, its just weird and creepy. The same thing also happens in Arknights with all those child operators (especially suzuran), like damn i didnt even know being a pedophile is funny
Man, those people should really hide their desire but oh well, guess they get boring in the long run and their desire overwhelm them lol But oh boy lemme tell ya, when desire overwhelms you, you not yourself, it's scary. Felt like clone received order 66, that's probably how it felt, it felt like doing the right thing.
